i know, it’s hard, and i’m being harsh here and i do give a lot of credit for what WAS done. but if BMorg expected to make $10M, i guess i expected a lot in return ON TOP of the volunteer activities, and some more significant and obvious symbolic actions on the part of the ORG. it was one of the few expectations i had this year, and once again….expectations cause disappointment i guess.

-There are over 50 camps going Biodiesel-because Blue pushed the
generator companies to let us ordinary citizens use bio-diesel in our
generators. Blue will keep talking to more companies to spread the love.

-Yellow Bikes program: Last year we had this 50 bike pilot project that
were for community’s use. Leave a bike when you want to jump on an art car
project. So 1,000 bikes is being donated by somebody who would like to
remain anonymous-this rocks. There will be instructions for drop off in
the basket. After Bman they will be rounded up, put in a shipping
container that they are providing and we will use them next year.

-All lighting L.E.D. or compaq flourescent-No Incandescent!

-Green Map/Guide handed out at Earth Guardians

-Green Film Festival at Entheon

-Green Man Speaks Symposium at Otter Camp

-Composting- The cafe, the commissary and 50-100 theme camps will be
composting and it will be sent to Minden.

-Express lane in Cafe for bringing cup to the cafe

-The Commissary will now be recycling, not using the incinerator, for cardboard.
For the to-go meals they will now be using corn based utensils and the system will be such that not every single meal gets one, but take as you need basis.

-Car Pool Bus Rides from Reno-stop at Lovelock and carpool people to
the event

-Wood and Tool Recycling-10 trucks donated for this purpose

-Albertson’s taking recycling

-Cooling Man Collaboration

-Burning Man Earth

-Green Open House
-Started Composting in Office
-Solar Project-Gerlach-120W and Lovelock-60W. This will generate over $3million worth of electricity over the next 20 yrs.
-We now know our power load at Bman
-Power assessment
-BioDiesel-87%+ 11K gallons of gas
-Launched Environmental Website
-Green Art Reception
-100% Renewable power for Man Base
-10+ art pieces being powered by shared solar
-Lots of Media outlets covering this–Tree Hugger/Current TV, Common Ground

-Large Scale Art Camp Networking–Working with those camps to share
power within their community

-Environmental and Baseline resource use assessment

-Green Man Pavilion-30 different displays, Education and Lots of Collaborations that will be with us in the future

-Man Base increased by 10 and cut the power load by 1/2.

-Impact analysis of Bman’s carbon footprint

i’m on the list-serv for the group who was working on greening the burn. i have watched their work, gone to a couple meetings, kept track of what results they had. they did a LOT of work, and they had a LOT of results.

i can understand the opinion that they should have done more to create visible and easily noticed changes or educational statements at the event; however, it’s important to remember that oftentimes that sort of action ends up being more greenwashy than the actions that take place behind the scenes. would you rather they made some posters about how great composting is, or would you rather they instigated a composting program for the commissary? which one is more visible? which one makes more of a difference to the environment?

there is very little that anyone can do to MAKE burners read or listen. it’s up to those of us who are most active and proactive to help circulate the information that we read and absorb. the borg, as well as offshoot groups like those working to green the burn, can only publicize so much.

i think about burning man as an event with several circles of increasing levels of participation, and each circle of participants receives a different level of communication and includes itself in the dialogues to a different degree. something like the green man theme and its goals is going to have the greatest impact on the smaller and more connected echelons of participants. is there even a way to truly communicate with the tourists who stop by for a couple days? what would you suggest we do to improve education for those folks? are you willing to put in 20 hours to create an educational display about compost?

the only reason that i was upset about the man burning early was the damage to the green pavillion. i’m perplexed as to how your opinion that the borg should have made more visible changes to demonstrate its commitment to greening someone excludes any appreciation for the work that was done to create the pavillion. the base of the man is one of the locations that all participants tend to visit. making this location a display of enviro technology–a science playground with no logos–seems to me to be an excellent way of educating general participants.

what else would you have liked? recycle camp has always been located at center camp. earth guardians is likewise always very visible. the center camp coffee shop, while not a thing i enjoy, is not a hugely offensive part of burning man consumption–if anything, it’s a good example of responsible consumerism in the midst of a lot of other wastefulness.

blah blah blah… all for now.

pS. imo, the use of such a large amount of fuel to destroy crude awakening is absolutely distasteful and disgusting. even with the most effective carbon credit accounting on the planet, i can’t think of a good justification for that burn.